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Cold and wet weather seemed to hurt Pirelli tires during the Formula 1 test in Barcelona. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Cold weather hurts Pirelli in Spain

February 21, 2013

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Tire degradation was the big talking point at this week’s Barcelona Formula One test, but Pirelli Motorsport boss Paul Hembery says that the cold weather is more extreme than it should be once the season gets under way.

While Pirelli has to create more degradation in 2013, it was worse than anticipated in Spain, and drivers struggled. The low temperatures also led to some graining issues.

“The teams experienced quite high degradation in Barcelona, and that was really down to the weather conditions,” said Hembery. “The conditions we had in Barcelona are far from typical of the rest of the season, with much cooler ambient and track temperatures than we would normally race in, and even some rain on the final day.

“This put the tires outside of their usual working ranges, which led to problems such as graining. The conditions were particularly unsuited to the supersoft tire, due to the circuit layout and the roughness of the surface, in addition to the cold temperatures. Coupled with the fact that teams are still making big set-up adjustments to their new cars and trying out our complete range of our tires to optimize the package, we saw levels of degradation that are not typical.

“Once we get to Melbourne, the tires should be much more within their intended working range, which will eliminate the unusual amount of degradation that some teams have experienced.”